I survived the Disneyland Halloween Half Marathon: What I wish I did differently
I went, I saw, I ran. Here's how I would have done things if I had known what I know now.
Before I heard about the runDisney events, I’m not sure I ever thought about what it would be like to run through Disney parks hours before they actually opened. When my legs feel like fire and my feet stop working after a few days at Disney, my thoughts don’t usually turn to running.
But pretty much as soon as I heard about these events (years ago) I started trying to get a registration, and invariably logged on too late to nab one. But early this year I finally got my spot, alongside some family, for the 2025 Disneyland Halloween Half Marathon, which took place on September 7, 2025.
Now that I’ve had a little time for this surreal experience to settle in, I can reflect, once again, on the many things I did wrong. It might not be much help for Disneyland racers in the long run (yuck yuck), since there will only be one more race weekend in early 2026 before the events go on indefinite hiatus at DLR — but hopefully my mistakes will help you if you end up at a runDisney event in the future, whichever coast you might be on.
Now that I’ve been through it, here’s what I wish I would have known ahead of time.
Schedule park time for AFTER the race
Hey, schedules are schedules, and when you have a kid whose absences and tardies are tracked and make you feel like a terrible parent, then you work around that schedule as much as you can.
But that said, in the most ideal of worlds, I would have NOT spent two full days walking around Disneyland Resort before raceday, logging more miles on my legs each day than I was eventually going to wake up at 3:30 a.m. to run.
In retrospect, I would have arrived the day before the race, hit the expo that evening, kept it chill, and spent all of my park days immediately after the race plus the next one or two days or so. Those first couple of weekdays after a race also appear to be typically very quiet with low wait times (not to mention the weather was much better, which of course is never a guarantee).
I spent those first two days also unable to fully relax and enjoy the Disney spirit, as I was constantly thinking about whether I should have that extra churro or whether I should head home early or skip a few rides in lieu of resting my legs. (If you’re wondering, I didn’t skip a damn thing.)
FWIW, I ended up being totally fine for the race, especially since the first 5-6 miles were within the park and very chill — and it’s not like I was going for a PR or anything. Still, it wasn’t until after the race that the stress lifted and I was in full-on park mode.
Take advantage of photo ops along the course
Coming from Denver, Anaheim was feeling pretty warm, even at 5 in the morning. So I was worried about getting overheated and bonking out. The answer? Dump water on myself at every single water station.
This strategy was actually quite successful overall, but it did make it look like I was the sweatiest human in the history of sweaty humans.
I also didn’t think much about where the photographers would be on the course, because usually I don’t really care all that much. But, this is DISNEYLAND. Of course I should have cared more!
And I’m not just talking about the character stops (that’s a whole other thing), I’m talking about the spots where they snap pics of you while you’re on the move.
Lots of folks around me were making sure to get great poses and taking time to make sure the photographers got the shot. As for me? Well, my brain recognized for about 4 seconds that maybe I should care, and the below is what I got:
Yeah…sweaty, blurry, apparently chewing on my tongue, and missing a great opportunity to get a sweet professional shot in the parks. But at least I waved, I guess?
I should have looked more at the course ahead of time and at least tried to get in some good poses (and maybe worn a different shirt so I didn’t look so soaked).
As for the character and other photopass stops — it’s all about personal preference. Even being in corral D, many of the character stops had long lines that were going to significantly increase my race time, and thusly the time before I was able to get into the parks to eat treats and bask in the glory of finishing a half marathon.
But for some folks, I get that this is what they’re there for. So, it will increase your finish time if you stop and get those extra pictures with your favorite characters, but with less than half the race in the park, I get it. I was good to just look at them as I jogged past, but it’s all about what you will enjoy the most.
Spend more time looking at logistics
In fairness, runDisney could make this a LOT easier for runners. Case in point, here’s the map they give you:
Where is the start line, exactly, you may ask? Where do you actually go through security and enter the area? Who the hell knows!
Well, actually, apparently a bunch of people knew, because as I exited my cozy room at the Best Western Plus Park Place Inn - Mini Suites (not to be confused with the 17 other Best Westerns along Harbor Blvd.)), I saw a line of runners walking the opposite direction of where I expected. So, I followed.
The path went just a bit past the Tropicana and we turned right through a grassy area that had a makeshift platform to guide the way, and then into a big empty parking lot behind the line of hotels on Harbor Blvd. There, we found security and went through, and then finally we were at the race area proper. From there it was easy to figure out where you needed to go, where to drop your gear bag (ahem, sorry gEARbag), grab water, etc. — but getting there was anything but clear and no amount of looking around online ahead of time cured that. Even if you find a Reddit post from a past race, there’s really no way to know if it’s legit for the current year.
So, just follow the other runners or take a minute at the expo to ask about where you can enter the race area.
I also found myself scrambling a bit the night before the race as I realized I had spent very little time thinking through the details of how race morning would actually go. That was due, in part, to the fact that I was in the parks the previous two days and didn’t spend any brain space on anything outside the bubble, but it was also due to a lack of detailed info from the race organizers.
Looking back, I would have spent a bit more time during the 1-2 weeks prior digging through the website and materials to ensure I had a solid plan of what I would do on raceday. Even things as simple as what time I’d leave the hotel I hadn’t really thought through until the night before.
Luckily, it only took me about 10 minutes to get back to the hotel, get my stuff in order, set the alarm for 3:30, and get some anticipatory sleep. I left the hotel by 4:15 a.m. and that was the perfect amount of time for me to get there, use the bathroom, and warm up (again, I was in an earlier corral, so keep that in mind). Worth noting: I brought a bagel and peanut butter with me; definitely extremely helpful to have your breakfast plans in place.
You’ll also want a clear plan for the expo. It was a bit confusing when I arrived, which was on Thursday evening, with race bibs getting handed out upstairs at Disneyland Hotel while the rest of the expo was happening downstairs. Also, keep in mind that things are a bit more restrictive at these races — there’s no picking up your bib without an ID or picking bibs up for other people in your crew.
Provide proof of time
As you can see, it was very early and very crowded (I heard there were ~17,000 half marathon runners). I was in corral D with a predicted time of 2 hours and 30 minutes, which was the fastest time I could project without providing proof of time.
While I’ve run many many half marathons quite a bit faster than that, I didn’t have any recent enough times to prove my worth, and didn’t bother running one in between when I signed up and the cutoff date to get said proof of time.
But if you think you’ll run this bad boy any faster than 2:30, even by a single second, you should go ahead and get your proof of time situation in order. And to be clear, zero shade to anyone who plans to run that time or longer — you’re running 13.1 miles, take as long as you damn need!
However, if you can, it’s definitely worth it to get that P.O.T. For starters, it means you get into an earlier corral. That means a lot less time just standing there waiting. I had relatives a bit further back and they didn’t get across the starting line until probably at least 30 minutes after me. That’s 30 minutes of literally just standing around in your corral waiting.
Even if you’re planning on stopping for photo ops in the parks and aren’t out for any speed records, it’s still well worth it to be in front of as much of the crowds as you can. There are many bottlenecks when you’re in there, which clear up once you’re out on the streets of Anaheim, but it can get a little hairy/slow — and, if you’re like me, you don’t want to rush through the park portion, but you do want to enjoy it and then get the damn race finished so you can come back and eat churros.
When you gotta go, go in the parks
I typically go to great lengths to avoid having to use the bathroom during a race, so I didn’t get to take advantage of this one, but it’s still a good tip to keep in mind.
If you feel like you might need to go, definitely use the bathroom early on while you’re still running in the parks. They’re clean, more private, and hey, more Disneyland time! Otherwise, you’re looking at a roadside porta-thingy where everyone can probably hear whatever is going on in there and you’ll be questioning if your hands are clean for the rest of the day.
Feel the Magic vibes
The first time you do anything new — a longer distance, run in a new place, etc. — it’s hard to know how your body will respond. I usually take the more conservative route in those instances. The first time I ran a full marathon, I brought a full camelback and probably a full meal with me on the course because I didn’t want to have to worry about pacing my fluid intake
I was also unsure how my body would respond to waking up super early and running a race after spending two full days pushing through heat and standing in lines while eating at odd intervals and not really paying attention to what ingredients were coming in.
Turns out, everything was perfectly fine, and I didn’t need to stress at all. Sure, my legs were a bit sluggish at the outset, but the spectacle of seeing the park lit up in the wee hours of the morning, the Rivers of America filled with fog, the custodial team cheering you on as if you just won the Super Bowl (seriously, they win the cheering contest), and so many other super cool and somewhat surreal moments far outweighed any of the tiredness I felt.
Yes, I would have done a few things differently, but most of all I would just let the hell go and fully enjoyed my time in the parks. Growing up, we took trips to Disneyland roughly every four years, so I never take it for granted when I’m there, but I did let my race jitters get in the way just a little bit.
Next time, whenever that may or may not be, I’ll simply relax and go with the flow knowing in full confidence that it will be a magical time no matter what.
